“I Had a Dream to Finish School”

This report highlights key barriers to secondary education
that prevent many adolescents from completing secondary
education, and identifies numerous areas that require the
government’s action to ensure all children access
secondary education equally. In particular, this report
points out government policies that specifically
discriminate against girls, enabling schools to expel
pregnant and married girls from school, robbing them of an
education, as well as a policy that allows school officials to
subject students to corporal punishment that can take
brutal and humiliating forms. These policies deliberately
facilitate discrimination and abuse, and stand in sharp
contrast to the spirit of the government’s efforts to provide
universal education.
Frances (pseudonym), 21, struggled to pay for secondary school.
She worked as a domestic worker to help pay her school fees:
“From 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. I studied, then from 5 p.m. – 11 p.m. I
worked [at her employee’s home] and I also worked over the
weekends ... I got 30,000 shillings [US$14] per month … not
enough to pay for school.” She failed the secondary school exam
and dropped out of Form IV.
8 “I HAD A DREAM TO FINISH SCHOOL”